Foothills Reserve · Trading Up
Trading Up into Foothills Reserve
Moving into more house, with the buy-and-sell sequencing worked out before you list.
The house is findable. The order of operations is the problem.
Most people who move up into Foothills Reserve are already in Ahwatukee. They want elevation, a view, more room, or a gated street, and they are moving off flatter ground a few minutes away to get it.
Trading up in Foothills Reserve is rarely hard because of what is available. It is hard because you have to sell something and buy something, and the order you do them in has consequences measured in tens of thousands of dollars and several weeks of not knowing where you will sleep.
What you get here is those two transactions run as one plan. Your equity and your financing looked at properly before anything is listed, so the sequencing call is made with numbers rather than a rule of thumb somebody repeated at a barbecue. And a listing on your current home that is prepared rather than rushed, because a rushed sale discounts the old house and that discount comes straight out of the new one.
You also get an honest read on whether the step up you are picturing exists in this community at your number, or whether it sits one community over.
Questions about your move? I'm glad to help.
Why move-up buyers and sellers use Savvy Realty Group
A trade-up is two jobs, and most agents are noticeably better at one of them. I am Amy Richardson, Savvy Realty Group at HomeSmart, and I run both sides of these regularly, which is the only way the dates actually line up.
Over my career it is more than 80 transaction sides and over $52 million in volume, across buying and selling, most of it inside Ahwatukee and the Southeast Valley.
The other half of it is that I spent twelve years in my family's financial advisory practice before real estate, and six years before that as a project manager at Wells Fargo. That sounds unrelated until you are at a kitchen table deciding whether to carry two mortgages for six weeks. Explaining consequential money decisions to people who did not want a lecture turns out to be the most useful thing I did before this.
Your sale gets the same preparation as any listing I take: a walkthrough before anything is photographed, a complimentary staging consultation, professional photography and an educational video with full drone footage. What the home needs beyond that is agreed together, and I say that up front rather than letting it surface later.
See how I handle move-up moves generally, or send me your numbers.
Two transactions, one calendar
Run separately, a sale and a purchase fight each other. Run together, every date is chosen deliberately. The listing half is at how I sell a home in Ahwatukee and the buying half at how I help you buy.
- Numbers first. I map your equity, your carrying capacity and what your current home is realistically worth. You talk to a lender about what you can hold and for how long. Neither of us guesses.
- The sequencing call. Selling first gives you certainty and a stronger offer, and risks a gap with money and nowhere to live. Buying first removes that and risks carrying two properties. I lay both out against your position. You choose.
- Prepare the sale properly. The walkthrough, the trades, the staging consultation and the photography all happen before you are under time pressure. That step is here, and it is the one that protects your next down payment.
- Walk the target pocket honestly. Stepping up here can mean Summit, where 88 homes from a single builder and a defined era make pricing predictable, or Calabrea next door, where every home is custom and no two are built alike. Those are different risks and I will tell you which one you are taking.
- Structure the purchase. Contingent offer, rent-back or an extended close: which of those is credible depends on the specific seller, and I will tell you honestly how yours is likely to be received.
- Both closings, one coordinator. My transaction coordinator tracks both sets of dates so nothing depends on you remembering an appraisal deadline during a move.
What you are actually stepping into
The step up into Foothills Reserve is usually a step into terrain as much as into square footage. The community backs to South Mountain, and hilly ground is what buys the elevation, the views and the privacy.
What it costs is flat usable yard and easy walkability. If your current home has a level garden your household uses every weekend, that is worth weighing honestly rather than assuming a view compensates for it.
Inside the community, the pockets step differently. Summit is gated and consistent. Sunrise is gated and hilly. Mountain Views, The Vistas and The Crossings sit alongside them. Right next door, Calabrea is gated and entirely custom across about 90 homesites, most half an acre or more, which is a genuinely different kind of ownership, and a separate HOA.
Worth comparing before you commit: Foothills Club West layers its own tract declarations onto the master rules parcel by parcel, the Foothills holds several distinct markets under one name, and Upper Canyon is now a real new-construction alternative in Ahwatukee. If the move-up you want is at the top of the market, luxury buyers in Foothills Reserve goes further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I sell first or buy first?
It depends on your equity, your financing options and how much uncertainty you can live with for a few weeks. I will not hand you a rule of thumb, because the two answers carry genuinely different risks and which suits you is a numbers question we can work out at a kitchen table.
Can I make an offer contingent on selling my current home?
You can, and its strength depends entirely on the specific seller and what else is in front of them. I will tell you honestly how a contingent offer is likely to be received on a given property rather than letting you find out by losing the house.
Is Summit or Calabrea the better step up?
They are different purchases rather than better and worse. Summit is 88 homes built between 2004 and 2007 by Woodside Builders, so the stock is consistent and pricing is more predictable. Calabrea is about 90 custom homesites with most at half an acre or larger, where condition and finish vary house to house and walking them matters far more.
What if my home sells faster than I find the next one?
That is a good problem and we plan for it at the start rather than react to it. Rent-back arrangements and close-date negotiation are both normal tools, and knowing in advance which one you would use removes most of the panic.
Foothills Reserve
What trading up looks like in Foothills Reserve
A Foothills community backing to South Mountain, with gated and custom pockets inside it.
One of the Ahwatukee communities I work most often.
- The homes
- Named neighborhoods inside the community include Sunrise (gated, on hilly terrain), Mountain Views, The Vistas, The Crossings and Summit. Summit is gated, sits on hilly terrain, and holds 88 homes built between 2004 and 2007 by Woodside Builders. Calabrea and Promontory sit right beside Foothills Reserve and are often described as part of it, but each is its own community with its own HOA.
- Why people choose it
- Buyers who want elevation and proximity to the mountain, with the gated pockets drawing the custom and luxury end.
- Getting around
- Chandler Boulevard is the only way out, west to 17th Avenue and down to the Loop 202, under ten minutes. The pitch here is the mountain and the hiking; the shops are a drive.
- The trade-off
- Hilly terrain is the trade. It buys you elevation, views and privacy, and it costs you flat usable yard and easy walkability compared with a community like Lakewood.
Foothills Reserve
The associations in Foothills Reserve
The association that applies here, linked to its own site so you can read the documents rather than take my word for it.
- Master association
- Foothills Reserve Master Owners Association 590 single-family homes, established 2001. Managed by Vision Community Management.
Dues and rules change, and which documents apply can depend on the parcel. Confirm both against the association before you write an offer.
The method
How we do it in Foothills Reserve
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Savvy Realty Group?